SHIRLEY JAFFE (1923 - 2016) Lot n° 50

Sans titre, 1995 Oil on canvas, signed on reverseof the canvas 65 x 54 cm 25 19/32 x 21 17/64 in. Shirley Jaffe American painter from the Cooper Union Art School in New York, Shirley Jaffe discovered and admired the paintings of Kandinsky and Bonnard, which were to be true inspirations in her work. A major artist of contemporary painting, she moved to Paris in 1949, and befriended the painters of the "second generation" of American abstract expressionists, including Sam Francis and Joan Mitchell. His painting, imbued with great gestural energy, is filled with vivid colors worked in large flat tints. His pictorial vocabulary, akin to lyrical expressionism, is gradually approaching abstract art. Sensitive to the forms that structure her work, Shirley Jaffe developed a personal pictorial style that was geometrically abstract. From the 1960s, the artist abandoned her search for gesture in favor of the sensitivity of forms. Thus, she applied herself to rendering movement in her rhythmic and colorful compositions. Her singular language made her an artist acclaimed by the critics. The work we present is part of the artist's geometric research. In the midst of a stylistic evolution, the painted composition is an example of the great plastic quality of Shirley Jaffe's work, which strives to maintain its spontaneity. The colors and shapes approach, overlap and mix in a sort of great disorder ordered by her inspirations. Both lively and spontaneous, this work is an illustration of Shirley Jaffe's undeniable talent.